Finally Finished - Trip Report - WDWers at Disneyland (June 10 - 18 with pictures)

[nzdisneymom]

So our tour was behind us and it was 12:30, the crowd at the park was picking up, and we were hungry. We left and went to lunch at McD's (and no worries - this was the 2nd and last time we ate there). It was a good break from the crowds and park and much cheaper than eating on property. I had some 10% off coupons but forgot to put them in my daybag.

We went back to Disneyland for a bit as we knew we'd be going back over to DCA in time for Aladdin which was at 4:15 and we had Indiana Jones FPs for after 1 p.m. DSZ wasn't sure he wanted to Indiana Jones so soon after lunch, so we shopped for a Hidden Mickey book (we love looking for Hidden Mickeys at WDW), and then got some Photopass pictures taken by the castle. I had read that the diorama was open again in Sleeping Beauty Castle (I remembered having gone through in 1999), so we walked through to see the new one. It was really good.

The boys both had to try to pull the sword from the stone by King Arthur's Carousel:

DSZ wanted to see what Pinocchio was - I had forgotten there was even a Pinocchio ride until we got in the queue. When we were there in 1999, the boys were 2 and 3 and we spent a lot of time in the early mornings in Fantasyland

We wandered over to Indiana Jones which even with a FP took about 20 minutes in the queue -- of course they walk you about a mile through the queue which reminded me of how the Safari queue is at Animal Kingdom. We had been looking forward to experiencing the ride, but whew - not something we would choose to do again. But then we don't really like the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom, either -- but Indiana Jones was better than Dinosaur.

We headed over to DCA and had time to do Soarin' over California. We like this ride at Epcot, but there was something special about being at the Original - Soaring over CALIFORNIA while in CALIFORNIA.

We grabbed some snacks for the boys before heading toward the Hyperion in time for queuing for Aladdin. We found a bench on the street to people watch while snacking. Snow White was walking down the street unescorted -- a guest came flying off the sidewalk "snow white, snow white - i love you - i have to get my picture with you." Snow White was very gracious and didn't look too frightened

About the Aladdin show. Absolutely Ah-Mazing! We loved this live performance! We had preferred seating, so that means we got into the theater in the first wave. A young couple in line with us was telling us where they had been told was a good place to sit (first or second row of the second tier so when the performers come across, you can see them). So we were able to get a good location. We loved that the performers kept the show fresh by making references to various current events and modern technology. The genie was hilarious as one would expect.

When Aladdin was over, we went immediately over to Monsters' Inc to see what it was about. We had some hidden Mickeys to look for, but other than that, the ride was less than exciting. Although the Roz at the end was great... she asked the boys to do something, but they didn't, so she told them that they had to bring her back a churro

By now it was 6 p.m. and we were ready to call it a day, so we headed back to DTD for dinner. We didn't know where we wanted to go, so we ended up walking down to the ESPN Zone, but there was nothing on the menu DH wanted, so we ended up going back to Naples. They looked busy, but they were able to sit up immediately upstairs. We ordered a large (not family-size) pizza which was more than plentiful, and we tried the mozzarella sticks, too -- they were really really good.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a family about to go through the monorail queue, so we gave them our FPs for Buzz since we weren't going back for the day.

We stopped to talk to the DVC guy at the hotel for a while, and then I went to Guest Services to see if they could help me make a reservation for the Rain Forest Cafe. We were able to get one for Sunday at 5 p.m. although they said they didn't usually do reservations on the weekend, but it was early enough in the day to get one.

We did a little shopping in the gift shop, including sweatshirt jackets for the boys who were chilly again. We stopped at Crocs for what would be our one and only Mickey ice cream bars / ice cream sandwiches for the week.

Showers and sleeping by 9:30.

 

[DLR29]

Sounds like such a fun trip! It's so cool that you got to ride in the Lily Belle and get preferred seating for Aladdin!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Since we bought the 5-day passes, we had chosen to keep Saturday and Sunday park-free as we knew the crowds would be more on the weekend than during the week. So we planned for Saturday to be our tour of Los Angeles and Hollywood day.

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up while the guys slept for a while longer. I got the park maps and made a list of the attractions we had not yet done so we would have a bit of a plan for when we returned to the parks on Monday.

As DVC members, we had been invited to the DVC Member gathering on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Because I was up, I planned to go, figuring they would probably have some muffins or something. The guys got up at nearly time to go downstairs, so DSN was ready and went with me, while DSZ and DH came down a little bit late. But they did have some pastries, so we had enough of a bite for breakfast.

We like going to the DVC Member gatherings because they give things away but also because it's fun to meet fellow-DVCers and hear about their experiences in different places. We also wanted to see the Grand Californian Villa model. Our guide for the morning was Sergio. They always do trivia and the boys won some pins and a front license plate with DVC on it.

We went back to the room to freshen up and get ready for our tour. Our tour was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. so we went down early so we'd be ready. On the way down the elevator, there was a family who was checking out. We were chatting with them and as we left the elevator, they gave us their leftover Disney Dining coupons ... they said they were not coming back before they expired (January 2010) and would rather give them to someone who could use them than just waste them. That was really nice -- and really helped us through the week. There were two snack coupons, two adult Goofy's Kitchen Dinner coupons, two Adult Lunch/Dinner table service coupons, and a child Goofy's Kitchen dinner and Lunch/Dinner table service. Wow!


We had scheduled a 5-hour tour in a 6-person limo ($300 + 20% gratuity) with Tony the Limo King. They have a package that is pretty much lined out but you can alter it some if you want to - that's what is nice about doing a private tour vs. a bus tour. DH and I had done a bus tour in 1995 and knew that it would be 1) too long for the kids, and 2) we wouldn't get to see everything we wanted to see and would have to see some things we didn't care about.

I'll post specific details about our tour on the other forum (Southern California) and post a link back here once I do. I will say that we had a wonderful time and were very happy with our experience. Our driver was on time, we got to ride in a gold limo, and we got to see and do the things that were on our list, including having "lunch" at the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store.

Here are the boys at the front of the shop by the Disneyland star:

and the El Capitan in the background with the boys and "our" limo on Hollywood Boulevard:

The tour ended up being longer than planned or expected and we encountered a wreck / traffic on the way back to Anaheim, but our driver did a fabulous job of going around on the "surface" streets. While we were heading back, we decided to see if we might get in for Goofy's Kitchen for dinner -- it was about 3:45 when I called, but as I expected, they didn't have any seating available for the evening. So we thought maybe we could find somewhere to use the Adult Lunch/Dinner Table Service coupons as they could be used at a restaurant or two that were at the other hotels, but without having a menu to know what they had, we didn't want to make seating arrangements. So we figured we'd just walk to Gardenwalk or maybe out Katella to find Denny's or something.

We made it back to the hotel about 4:45, tired and hungry as you can see the only thing we had for lunch is pictured above! So I went to Guest Services (all the way to the right after you enter the Lobby - you don't intuitively see it when you enter the DLH) to see if they could help us figure out what to do for dinner. I also wanted to see if we could get Goofy's Kitchen seating for early dinner on Thursday so we'd have a good meal before going to the airport for our redeye flight home.

Unfortunately the only time available for Thursday night was going to be too late for us, but the CM suggested if we wanted to go today to just go right over to the podium and see if they could take us as walk-ins. I don't know why that hadn't occurred to me as an option -- I'm so glad she suggested it. It was 4:53 at that point, and I had everything we'd need for dinner, so we crossed our fingers and headed over.

And YAY - we were able to get in right away. I used the two coupons and then paid (with AAA discount) for the other two of us, so instead of $160 for four, it was under $80. And it was a perfect option for us as we were all hungry, we didn't have to walk anywhere, and there was a big selection of food - something for all of us.

There were quite a few characters at dinner: Goofy, Minnie, Belle, Donald, Chip, and Pluto (at the beginning). Here are some pics:

After dinner the boys went back to the room to get ready for bed (what? it was only 6:15 but they were wiped out) while DH and I "rolled" our way to Downtown Disney for a bit of an after-dinner walk. DSN's birthday was coming up on Tuesday, so we picked up the Imagineering Field Guide book for Disneyland for him at the book shop at the beginning of DtD... and the nice thing was they gift wrap for free!

We were back at the room by 7:15 and the boys were both tucked into bed! We were all asleep by 9:30.... zzzzz...........

 

[50sjayne]

My gosh-- you guys had a great trip! I usually don't pay any attention to wdw vets posts or trip reports but yours is very honest and refreshing. The Lily Belle! Bonus
Those meal tickets were awesome-- it is so nice to find people like that who--pass it on y'know...amazing luck for you guys. You are a great writer, please continue.

 

[nzdisneymom]

My gosh-- you guys had a great trip! I usually don't pay any attention to wdw vets posts or trip reports but yours is very honest and refreshing. The Lily Belle! Bonus
Those meal tickets were awesome-- it is so nice to find people like that who--pass it on y'know...amazing luck for you guys. You are a great writer, please continue.

Thanks. It's fun to relive, and I really hope that something we experienced might be helpful to others who go to Disneyland after us. There was so much I wanted to know ahead of time

It's hard to believe we've been home just two weeks - it seems like longer than that.

One cool thing was that this afternoon while watching the Disney Channel, we saw the mini-sode of Disney 365 that has Selena Gomez that was filmed the day we saw her!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Before we made our trip, we planned to have Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen one morning because we had done that in 1999 and had a great time. We picked Sunday to do it because if we ate like pigs and felt like slugs all day because of it, no worries - the only thing we had planned officially was laundry!

I woke up early again, before everyone else. I guess getting 9+ hours of sleep each night is part of what vacation is all about! And the comfortable beds sure made it nice for sleeping. And the room was quiet, too. Instead of getting up early, I laid on the bed til DSZ stirred about 7:30. Our breakfast time wasn't scheduled until 9 a.m., but at this point, DSN and DH also got up, so we were all ready to go out for the day at 8:15. DH wanted to go ahead and start the laundry, but I was concerned that breakfast would take so long and our clothes would get done and just sit there and someone else might be wanting to use the machines, so we waited.

We checked in at the podium and were able to be seated right away. We were in the same section we had been the night before, so we were first with the characters.

Oh - here's our picture with Pluto complete with little Mickey who joined us for breakfast:

Dale came to the table just as we were being seated, so we got pictures:

Goofy came by later and tried to eat little Mickey. When he gave him back to us, Goofy made a big slurping sound as he "licked" Mickey... it was hilarious.

DSN found the Eiffel Tower of Bacon (he wanted me to include this in my trip report):

Can you guess which plate is DSN's?

Besides Pluto, Dale, and Goofy, there weren't any other characters that we saw at breakfast. The food was good - lots of standard breakfast food items and some lunch items, too - even chicken nuggets and hot dogs ... not quite my idea of breakfast, but then they do serve until nearly lunch. I tried the pb/j pizza but was not a fan.

After breakfast, we trekked to the laundry room which is behind the quiet pool. There were five washers and six dryers -- all were empty around 9 a.m. on Sunday. No one else was queuing, so we took three washers. We used the Purex 3 in 1 laundry sheets which worked out really well -- what an easy way to take your laundry items with you while traveling. We used our rolling suitcases to take the laundry to the laundry room - that made it easy.

After we switched the laundry to the dryer, we went by Guest Services to pick up the Pirates of the Caribbean trivia quest... they pass it out each morning between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. and then you bring it back later in the day. It doesn't have to be the same day, either.

We had some friends who live in the area who were coming for a visit in the afternoon, so I checked with Guest Services about how and where they could park. They are allowed to park in self-parking, but you have to get an extra key-card under your room so that they can exit afterwards without having to pay a parking fee. So we got the key cut while at Guest Services and then stopped at the small gift shop to borrow their Sharpie so I could write my friend's name across the key so I wouldn't get mine and hers mixed up since they both had my name on it.

I knew they had a Sharpie at the small gift shop because earlier in our stay I had gotten a couple of water bottles there and asked if they had a marker I could use to write names on the water bottle. The CM was very nice and even dried off the water bottles for me so the writing would stay. We used the water bottles all week, especially DSZ and I, to make the go-packs of Crystal Light lemonade and fruit punch to have in the room for afternoon and evening drinks.

Next up -- entertaining friends at the DLR.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

I'm really loving your trip report. It's making me so excited for my upcoming trip to DL and helping me remember some of the remarkable differences between WDW and DL. You guys have had so many magical moments, I can't wait to see what comes next.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Great start, and I love all the additional tips/info that you are providing. I am filing it away.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We weren't sure what time our friends would arrive, so we just continued to do what we would've done anyway - just hang around the resort. We sent the boys out for some "hidden Mickey" time - they took our little Mickey around the resort and "hid" him to take photos.

Like this one where they hid our Mickey in the gift shop:

or this one outside the glass gift shop:

Around noon, we went to the pool. It wasn't too busy, and we found some chairs up on the grass under some trees so it was nice and shady. The grass was really soft like golf course grass, so you could walk barefoot on it with great comfort The boys went on the slide multiple times and it was pretty busy. The lifeguards were being drilled -- we watched a few times as a guy dropped in a shadowy thing and the life guard had to jump in to "rescue" it. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on and then I realized that it was part of their drills. When we were at Hilton Head in early April, their life guards were also training.

Our friends arrived around 2 p.m. DH and the boys had not met them before, so I had gotten some tokens for the remote control boats for an "ice breaker" ... the tokens are $2/each or 10/$10 (and some other increments in between).

This is actually a picture the boys took on their Mickey tour around the resort, but what I thought was interesting was that they put Mickey at #13 which Nancy had pointed out to us on our tour is that the 13th letter of the alphabet is M -- M for Mickey.

After the boats, we walked over to Downtown Disney. They hadn't been there before, so they were amazed at how it really is adjacent to the hotel!

We had our dinner arrangements made for the Rainforest Cafe but since they had only given us a reservation for four, I wanted to see if we could change it to a table for six. Turns out that they didn't even have a record of it. It was about 3 p.m. then, so I asked if, since there was a mix-up, if we could get on the list anyway ... so they told us to come back at 4:15 to the Elephant.

Next stop - the Lego Store!

We ended up hangin' out here til time for our dinner reservations with the kids building and the grown-ups catching up.

We went back to the RFC but ended up still having a 30+ minute wait. But that was ok as there is plenty to see in the RFC store. Our dinner was good and there was enough variety for all of us to find something. We had a $10 off $25 "family and friends" coupon, so when we ordered, we made sure to tell our server separate checks. Well our server's shift ended in the middle of our dinner, so he left (but at least he brought over his replacement) but he didn't tell him we needed separate checks, and I didn't think to ask again ... until he brought the bill already rung up and had applied the discount. We wanted to pay separately without having to do the math (we were on vacation, after all), but he said if he voided it out and re-did it, then the coupon would come off. I probably should've asked to see a manager at that point to take care of it, but between us we had enough cash and enough math skills that we worked it out.

Next we walked down to the Grand Californian -- we hadn't been down there yet, and we had the Hidden Mickey book with us, so we introduced our friends to Hidden Mickeys. While we were looking for those at the front desk, there was another lady also searching, so we teamed up to find them. The kids have good eyes and always see them faster than me.

The lobby at the Grand Californian is beautiful. It reminded me somewhat of the Wilderness Lodge, but DSN thought it was more like at Animal Kingdom. Either way, it was beautiful in its own!

Heading back to the DLH, we stopped at Haagen Das for ice cream for DSZ (who had been suggesting all week that he would sure like to try some) and our friends, while DSN and DH had a Wetzel's Pretzel. Then it was time to say goodbye and our friends left a little after 7 p.m.

We remembered there was a new episode of Hannah Montana on, so we rushed back to the room to get showers and ready to watch -- we love our Disney Channel shows! Still asleep early as tomorrow we head back to the parks.

I will say that I am very very glad that we planned two down-days in our trip, and I'm glad we planned them back-to-back because it really made a difference in being rested for the next days ahead.

 

[nzdisneymom]

It's Monday morning, and it's back to the parks after having two days out. The park opening times have changed to 8 a.m. to midnight for DL and are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. for DCA.

We got up at 7 a.m. and had breakfast in the room before heading over to join the early morning crowd at Disneyland. We timed the leisurely walk from the Wonder tower of DLH to the DL gates -- 13 minutes. There was already a good number of people heading in the park.

First stop today was fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain. We had not yet done this ride and it's a favorite at WDW. We had a little trouble with one of our tickets as it said it had not been used for park entry - even though I had watched them scan. The CM said not to worry, just use the "not valid" FP with the others as most CMs will let you through rather than hiking back to the beginning to get the ticket scanned.

The ride was a walk-on at this point, so we thought we'd go ahead and do it -- we got in the front car and it was really really jerky - ugh. So we decided we'd have to do it again but try for the middle of the train.

Next stop - the Haunted Mansion - which had been super-busy every time we'd been near it on Thursday and Friday. Today it wasn't -- because it was temporarily closed. But we did get this family picture:

It was so not busy over in Fronteirland / New Orleans Square, so we took a moment to just look around and enjoy the open space! One of our favorite times at the Magic Kingdom is early in the morning while everyone is rushing to Fantasyland or Tomorrowland and we go over to Fronteirland!

We brought the Pirates trivia sheet with us that we had picked up from Guest Services at the hotel, so we walked on Pirates and searched for answers. We gave each of us an assignment - DH was counting the boats, I was looking for eight types of animals, DSN was counting cats, and DSZ was counting prisoners in the jail. Plus we were all looking for the other questions. I know I said this before, but we definitely liked Pirates in DL better than at the MK.

The Haunted Mansion was STILL closed, so we went back to Big Thunder for a second ride. This time we were in the back and it was much better. This is another ride that we liked better at DL than MK - although it might have to do with the queue line not being uphill (LOL). But seriously, what I liked was the theming and how you come into the town at the end with the Dance Hall and the Dentist, etc. Nice touches.

We looked across the "river" and could see that the Haunted Mansion was still not open, so next stop - the Tiki Room.

We have a friend who has worked at the Tiki Room in Florida, so whenever we go and she's working, we always stop in. And of course the boys don't remember having seen the original Tiki Room from 10 years ago when we were at Disneyland, so they were anxious to see it. It's a split vote on which we like better -- the adults like the California version better, DSZ liked the Florida one better, and DSN said they were both the same to him - he couldn't pick one over the other.

We thought we'd try the Jungle Cruise but wouldn't you know it - it was also temporarily closed. Just our luck for the day. But the boys did the Tarzan's Tree House (and I'm so glad we don't have to go through the Tree Houses with them any more). I like how the exit is right by the entrance unlike at WDW where the exiit is further down. While we were waiting for the boys, DH walked over to see if the Haunted Mansion was open - and sure enough, it opened right as he was watching - so as soon as the boys got done, we went there next.

While we were waiting for the Haunted Mansion, it dawned on me why the movie is set in Louisiana -- duh! I never could figure that out before because my only real Haunted Mansion reference was the one in Florida.

We liked the queue area after the stretching room so much better in CA than in FL because it's much more orderly and you don't feel like you're going to be separated from your family nor trampled on in the dark. But as for the ride itself, we like the one in Florida a bit better. Although DSZ spied a Hidden Mickey that wasn't in the book - it's in the attic scene, first area on the right in the mirror on the dresser - clear as a bell, but you have to be at the right angle to see it -- we did the ride a couple more times during the trip - I saw it with DSZ, but when I went with DH, I was on the left side and couldn't see it, and DH couldn't figure out where I wanted him to look.

Anyway, after the Haunted Mansion, it lets you exit right where you can start the long queue for Splash Mountain - we decided to walk around and see how long the line was -- 10 minutes???? So DH and DSZ got in line while DSN and I found a place to watch for them. We also saw where Pooh was and it was a 3-minute wait. We got to see DH and DSZ come down the big splash and then went to meet them. Just after they got off, the line was closed off for a bit.

Pooh was still three minutes so we got in the queue for it and rode it just to say we did.

Next up -- in search of lunch.... easier said than done...

 

[OurDogCisco]

Great trip report, Cindy! I finally had a chance to sit down and read it... I can't wait to read about your likes/dislikes between the two parks: Florida & California.

Tina

 

[nzdisneymom]

Because I'd taken some time over the weekend to make our list of things we still needed to do, I had also looked at the dining options in both parks to try to make our lunch choices a bit easier. I noted that the Village Haus served pizza and burgers, so I knew we could all four eat at the same location which minimizes our dining time. Since we were in Fronteirland/New Orleans Square area, we hopped on the train to go around to the Fantasyland/Toon Town stop.

We made our way over to the Village Haus which was just opening at 11 a.m. so it wasn't busy. We made our selections and then I got in line (well, there wasn't a line, so I just walked up to the CM) only to find out that their pizza was not yet ready and they didn't know when it would be ready. What????? Sigh!

So we're all hungry still and decided to punt and just do the separate locations thing for lunch... Tomorrowland Terrace for DH and me and Redd Rocket's Pizza Port for DSN and DSZ. I was expecting the Tomorrowland Terrace to be like Cosmic Ray's at WDW so when we walked by and saw it was truly a counter-service place (no having to go inside!), we changed our strategy a bit... we found a place to sit and left the boys there while DH went back to get our burgers at TT and I went on to RRPP. Again, I thought Redd Rocket's Pizza Port would be like the Pizza Planet at Hollywood Studios in Florida - but it was totally different. The whole way you order and pay was a bit confusing at first, but I finally figured it out and got the boys a slice of pizza each plus a drink. By the time I got back to the table, DH was halfway done eating his lunch and the boys had gone to Redd's to find me. But no matter - we all had something to eat!

After lunch, we picked up Fast Passes for later for Space Mountain and then went into Innoventions as there was no queue for it (there was a queue nearly every other time we went by for the rest of our trip). It was so weird to go into the building and it NOT be the Carousel of Progress. We always enjoy Innoventions at Epcot, so we were curious to see what it was like in DL.

The beginning of Innoventions is the Future House which is really just a way to do traffic / crowd control for entering the building. We looked around at the "house" for a bit and then went upstairs for the real action. They had some of the same games like Power City that we enjoy playing. And it was air conditioned and we got to see Tom Morrow:

Time for a nap, so we took the monorail back to the Downtown Disney station, riding in the front cab.

Back at the hotel, we turned in our Pirate trivia quest and got our prize (hint: it's chocolate). Back to the room for a rest from 1:15 til about 4 p.m.

One more picture - waiting for the monorail:

 

[travelmel]

=]

Loving your report AND your HIDDEN MICKEY SHIRT!

We must have been seperated at birth

Yep, that's the same shirt!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Loving your report AND your HIDDEN MICKEY SHIRT!

We must have been seperated at birth

Yep, that's the same shirt!

Oh how awesome - and you were on the Lilly Belle just like we were! I love that shirt.

 

[nzdisneymom]

The nice thing about the way Disneyland Resort is set up is that it literally takes no time at all to return to your Disney hotel (nor some of the other ones right on Harbor) for an afternoon rest. At WDW, leaving the park for a rest generally means a minimum of 30-minutes transit each way -- for us at DLR, it was maybe 15 minutes each way and that's if we poked along.

So after our naps / rest time, we headed off for DCA as we haven't spent a lot of time here yet and still have several things on our "to do" list. First stop - the Bakery tour for the sourdough bread bowls. Rosie O'Donnell and (someone else - I can't remember now - somebody help me out) host this tour of the history of sourdough bread and how it's made. It was entertaining, takes about 10 minutes or so, and at the end you get the "top" out of a bread bowl. They use the bread bowls they make here at the various restaurants right in DCA. Mmmmm.... fresh sourdough bread. And if you want another free treat, just cross the path to the Mission Tortilla Factory that is right there... there was a line out the door so we skipped it this time as we headed up to Paradise Pier.

Toy Story Midway Mania had a 40 minute wait so we decided to not try to do it again and headed to the Fun Wheel. We had debated all week about whether we would do the Fun Wheel or not, but finally decided to do the non-swinging gondala side for this one. The Fun Wheel has 24 gondalas - the yellow ones with Mickey on them are the non-swinging ones:

The other ones swing (and gosh, I just loved the way the characters looked on them that I had to "collect" the whole set):

The line was about 30 minutes, and I can see why. They load three cars at a time, two swinging, one non-swinging, and that takes eight loads to get the thing loaded... and then they give you one spin around. But the view from the top is worth the wait!

(But first you have to look at the view of us in the Fun Wheel)

And hey look - this boy is still twelve, but tomorrow he turns into a teenager:

The guys were getting snackish, so we decided on popcorn and hot dogs for "dinner" (not together). I started to get the popcorn back in Paradise Pier but the CM told me hers had just burned so I'd be better off somewhere else. She told me where to find one up by the Hollywood area which is where we were going for the Award Weiners hotdogs anyway.

But along the way, we wandered through Bugland and went over to Flik's Fun Fair. It was fun to walk through and see the attention to detail in the theming - lots of Pixar references throughout. There are four rides in this area, mostly geared towards the younger set, but my guys were THRILLED! They rode the Lady Bug Boogie while DH and I enjoyed a rest on a bench. The boys scoped out what they wanted to do on our return to DCA.

We made it to Hollywood and got our dinner.

(I wish there was no line - I took this picture the morning of our Welcome to Disneyland Tour.) There is plenty of seating just to the right of the counter back where the entrance to Muppets 3D is. And the restrooms are just across the way, so this is a good place to stop for a bite.

Next up: Disneyland at night (after all, we still have our Space Mountain fast passes to use).

 

[nzdisneymom]

So around 7 p.m. on Monday night, we joined the crowds in the Disneyland park. We didn't know it until the next day, but DL reached capacity that day and the only reason we were allowed back into the park was that we had our hands stamped as having been there that morning. It was the only day we really noticed the CMs looking at the hand-stamp carefully.

Because we'd just eaten, DSZ wanted to wait a little bit before riding Splash Mountain, so we headed for the Storybook Canal. I remember doing this with the boys when they were little and worrying that they would fall in. The queue was about 20 minutes.

Next we headed over to Space Mountain. The one in Florida is too jerky for me and DH, but we wanted to try this version as I had read about the seating being different as well as a relatively recent rehab. DSZ loves Space Mountain in Florida. DSN has never had his courage up to ride it.

So we queued for the ride in the Fast Pass line but it was still a 30 minute wait. Just as we were nearing the loading area, the lights came on and the ride shut down. Bummer. I wasn't sure at this point if we'd get DSN's courage back up for another try. As we were all exiting, the CMs were giving out passes for entry back onto any ride at either park (except Toy Story Midway Mania) for later this same day. Because it was already 8 p.m., we knew we weren't going to be in the park much longer, so I asked the CM if he would write our slip for the following day - and he gladly did.

We still had our fast passes for Big Thunder from this morning, so we headed over to ride at night. Just like in Florida, Big Thunder is better at night! Whee!!!!!

We debated whether to try to see Fantasmic, but the place was already packed, so we thought we'd go find a spot for watching the fireworks. Here is where we noticed a BIG difference between California and Florida -- in Florida, you find a spot and just stand there and hope you don't get jostled and trampled on. The CMs try to put some pathways with rope for people passing through and the rest is wide-open, take a chance if you dare for finding a space to watch. In California, if you're waiting to watch the fireworks, you have to go into a roped off area that is really roped off like a pen. And from there, you wait -- they have plenty of places designated for fireworks viewing. The CMs also provide WIDE paths for traffic to move in and out -- and also have directional paths -- so everyone is going the same direction. The paths are wide enough wheelchairs and strollers as well as Moms walking holding hands with a child on each side of her.

And the best part was the CMs were NOT afraid to tell a guest to move it, go the other way, etc. etc. etc.

(which reminds me - I forgot to mention that while we were in line earlier at the Fun Wheel, there was a group of teenagers who had the 3-D glasses from Toy Story on their heads only they had punched out the lenses. A CM saw them and went over and collected them back. Yeah! You'd never see a CM do that in Florida... it's like in Florida, the guests can do no wrong - no matter how ridiculous they are.)

Anyway, we found a spot that wasn't too crowded nor blocked too much by trees so we could watch the fireworks from in front of the castle. We were about 1/2 hour waiting and then it started and it was good. We loved seeing Tinkerbell flying (rather than just zipping in a straightline) and then there was also Dumbo which was very cool. One thing we couldn't figure out from the show, though, was where was the villian scene? There's always a villian segment in the fireworks show... so we either "didn't get it" or they don't have one in Summer Nightastic. We all agreed that we like Wishes better than the Summer Nightastic fireworks.

The crowd leaving the park after the fireworks wasn't too bad - again, we attribute this to CMs doing a good job of traffic control... but then again, it could also be that people were still staying at the park and not leaving

We stopped at Wetzel's Pretzels for our now-becoming-regular evening snack and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow our 12 y.o. becomes a teenager, so we'd better get some sleep................

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

I figured out the name of the guy from the Boudin Bread Factory Tour with Rosie O'Donnell: Colin Mockery (sp?) from "Who's Line is it Anyway" amongst other things.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I figured out the name of the guy from the Boudin Bread Factory Tour with Rosie O'Donnell: Colin Mockery (sp?) from "Who's Line is it Anyway" amongst other things.

Hey - thanks!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Sorry for the delay in updating our report. Whew - things got busy for a few days!

So it's now Tuesday, June 16th, the day DSN becomes a teenager. We woke up after 7 a.m. ... if you remember from my very first post, I figured by this day we'd be sleeping in rather than getting up early for Magic Morning

We gave DSN his gift of the Imagineers Field Guide to Disneyland. We asked him if he wanted to wear his birthday button, but he didn't (he's not crazy about garnering attention), so a quick breakfast and we headed out to DL around 8 a.m.

DSN wanted to ride the Matterhorn for his birthday ride, so we took the monorail to Tomorrowland. DH and the boys went to the Matterhorn while I got FPs for Autopia and then staked out the line for Finding Nemo. The line was already 45 minutes by 8:15 because of the early entry, and by the time the guys got back from the Matterhorn (which they loved), the Finding Nemo line was up to an hour.

So we went to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We don't really like this attraction at Epcot, and sure enough, we didn't like it in California either. But we did like the preshow Kodak commercial.

After the HISTA, we walked up the ramp to Space Mountain using our return-pass from the night before. LOVED IT! It's side-by-side seating, music, and just a fun time! We all four enjoyed it, although DSN didn't want to do it again.

It was time for our Autopia FP - it was a bit confusing to figure out that everyone goes in the same queue place and then the FP splits off further up the ramp - but we figured it out We usually skip the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, but we're glad we did the Autopia - we liked the track better - and what a fun surprise when we even went "off road". The boys drove us around the track.

It was nearly 10 a.m., so we headed over to DCA. Nancy, our guide from the Welcome to Disneyland Tour, had advised us to go to the guest relations at DCA to get the birthday fun card rather than trying to do it at City Hall at DL. She was so very right - there were two people at the counter so we were next in line.

A bit of advice -- if you've registered online for the birthday celebration, make sure to bring a printed copy of the registration confirmation - this makes it really easy for the CMs to process your request. And have your supporting documentation ready (birth certificate in DSN's case). We opted for the fun card ($69) over the other options because we had planned to use it for our souvenir shopping. We had understood that the card was only valid for that day, but the CM said it didn't expire and that we could use it at the World of Disney or even the gift shops at the hotel. So that took our "shopping pressure" off our list of things to do for the day, leaving us time to enjoy DCA.

 

[DLR29]

I'm glad you liked both Space and Autopia. So many times better than their WDW counterparts.